The Hunted
by shinytinfoil
Summary: The story of two mutants whose fight for survival brings them together.
1. The Runner

Okay. This is the second fanfic I'm writing at the moment. The other one is only half-done, I admit, but these characters kept forcing themselves at me everytime I tried to write, so I'm going to get their stories out of my system. Read this, and maybe read the other one: I like reviewers, especially well-put suggestions to make the story better in any way possible.  
  
The standard disclaimer applies throughout the story, though Cat and Theo are completely mine, as are any unnamed, one-time characters.   
  
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Hardly anyone noticed the young woman jogging down Main Street at four a.m. A waitress at Pearl's Diner saw her when she turned on the neon OPEN sign that hung in the window; a young man sneaking back home after a night spent with a lover hid his face in case she might recognize him; a dog barked from his fenced-in run.  
  
Only the waitress had a good enough look to be suspicious at her ragged appearance. A pair of ill-fitting jeans with cargo pockets big enough to hold a kitchen sink hung precariously from her hips, as though she'd lost a good deal of weight in a very short time, the hems ragged because she'd walked them off, while her black muscle tank had faded to gray in spots, and her shoes seemed to be held together with nothing but hopes and dreams. Her dark blond hair was cut raggedly in the front, as though she'd gotten tired of having strands in her face and had sawed them off with a knife haphazardly, but the bulk of it fell to the middle of her back in a straight sheet. As though sensing the waitress' eyes on her, she turned and made eye contact through the window: her eyes were a startlingly vivid green. She smiled, the barest twitch of her lips, and winked, and the waitress waved in surprise.  
  
Then she was gone, as though the wave had been an unspoken signal to speed up, and she ran down Main Street at a pace that would have outstripped most cars that passed by during the day, and yet her body showed no signs of exertion, no signs of effort. The waitress squeaked in her white Keds to the door and leaned out into the semi-darkness in time to see her turn a corner, onto the road that would lead to the quarry, and considered calling the Sheriff- such a vagrant would surely cause trouble- but decided not to. Something told her that the woman was as good as gone.  
  
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	2. The Digger

Here goes the second chapter. I changed my pen name, by-the-by, in case you didn't figure that out on your own. So now I'm the-person-formerly-known-as-K.A.T.E.-now-known-as-shinytinfoil, k? I don't do numbers, so it might change again if they add one.  
  
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The boy could not have been more than sixteen, awkward in a body that was more skin and bone than actual muscle, with hair that had been shaved down to the roots, but his voice was a smooth, rich baritone, completely at odds with the rest of his dirt-covered appearance.   
  
If the social worker had looked closer, she would have seen that, despite the dirt, his clothes were of good-quality, as was the backpack he had slung over one shoulder, but this particular worker had been working for nine straight hours and was ready to go home and watch CSI: Miami. "Name?" she questioned flatly.  
  
"Theodore Jeffries." The boy kept his eyes on the floor, hands shoved deep into his coat pockets.  
  
"Place of origin?"   
  
"Ewing, New Jersey."  
  
"Did you run away from home?"  
  
"My parents kicked me out."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I kept digging holes."  
  
"That's why the cops picked you up, correct?"  
  
"Yeah. I didn't know you couldn't dig in Fairmont. They should put up signs."  
  
"Hm, well." The worker signed the bottom of the form and handed it to him without looking up. "Take this form to the Youth Center down the street. You'll stay there until we can contact your parents or set you up in foster care."  
  
If she had looked up, she would have noticed that there was something wrong with the hands that took the form, something abnormal, but the boy hid them behind his back before she looked. "Yes, ma'am. I'll go now." He turned and trotted out, and the social worker didn't spare him another thought. If he went to the center, he went, but they both knew he probably wouldn't even be in the city come tomorrow.  
  
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	3. The Quarry

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I did some editing yesterday, so you might want to go back just to check and made sure you read chapter 2. Read and review, next chapter soon!  
  
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The place had been a granite quarry at one point; long since abandoned, it sprawled across a good expanse of forest, full of bolt holes and freshwater lakes. Since it seemed from the unbroken branches lying across the only road out here that hardly anybody ever came, it was the perfect place to hide a body.  
  
Especially one that was still living. They'd never find her up here. One road, and a rough one at that, plus a surrounding forest that provided endless hiding places secured the area better than Fort Knox. She'd give it a day, maybe two, to rest up and get the smell of travel out of her pores, before she started running again. She certainly couldn't afford to settle down permanently, not with the Feds on her heels.  
  
Cat sighed and sank to the ground, pulling a piece of paper out of one of her cavernous pockets. She unfolded it to see an artist's rendering of herself, scowling uncharacteristically back at her. 'WANTED,' the caption read. 'For suspected mutantcy and assault of a Federal Officer, one Catherine 'Cat' Davis.'  
  
Wondering when suspected mutantcy had become a felony, she carefully folded the worn paper and stuck it back in her pocket, replacing it with a carton of cheap cigarettes and and an even cheaper Zippo lighter. She lit a cigarette and blew her smoke towards the rising sun as though in mockery of the wanted poster and the law enforcement behind it.  
  
The charge of mutantcy was, in fact, completely accurate, although the assault had been purely self-defense, as if they'd ever believe that. Cat had been fourteen when she'd discovered her unusual talents, speed and strength that bordered on supernatural, and an instinct that sometimes was. She'd managed to keep it hidden until a car accident two years ago, an accident that had killed her father and paralyzed her stepmother. Spurred by her stepmother's cries, Cat had pulled the door of the car completely away from the chassis and pulled her away just before the car blew up. Such a feat probably would have gone unnoticed after the distraction of the explosion, had it not been for the guy with a camcorder that had caught the entire thing on film. That idiot had turned the tape into the authorities and the next thing Cat knew, she was on the run.  
  
They'd caught up with her six months later, when she'd been stupid and desperate enough to check into a motel, but instead of trying to arrest her, they'd opened fire, and Cat had had to break one's nose to escape, which was where the assault came from. While talking her out into the open, one had revealed that her stepmother was still living outside Montgomery, in a wheelchair, which was how she knew. After the hearing that, she left Alabama for good, moving north in a swift and silent zigzag. Southerners were the worst in the country for tolerance of any kind. North, especially in big cities, differences went, if not unnoticed, at least unreported. Most simply didn't care. She'd spent an entire month in New York, actually eating in soup kitchens, before people had started to look at her suspiciously.   
  
There were lots of people living in shelters in New York, mostly runaway kids, that displayed signs of mutant powers themselves, carefully hidden by baggy clothes and eccentric ways. One teenage boy with pointed teeth wore a baclava year-round, even in summer, while another hid the chromatic affects his mind created by wearing pieces of broken mirrors and colored glass glued to his clothes. Cat's powers, able to hide them as well as she was, were completely ignorable.  
  
The sun cleared the horizon completely and Cat rose, crushing the cigarette deftly under her toe as she strolled to down into the bottom of the quarry, where she found a nice cave to hole up in while she slept soundly for the first time in many days.  
  
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	4. The Trucker

To answer your question, Guin, this is set at roughly the same time as X2, before Xavier talks to the President, when mutant predjudice was in the Federal Government. I probably won't mention it too much, except in passing, because they won't meet the X-men till after the President... well, that would be giving things away.  
  
Anyway, here's chapter 4. Read and review!  
  
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Theo, whose real surname was Jenkins and who was really eighteen, leaned out the open window of the tractor-trailer's cab, as much to get away from the stink of greasy fast food wrappers and cigarette smoke as to keep himself awake. He didn't trust this particular trucker enough to sleep in his presense, though he seemed like a pretty decent fellow, albeit an unwashed chainsmoker.  
  
  
  
He'd washed himself off in a gas station bathroom and changed clothes, knowing that he was more likely to get a ride if he looked at least halfways decent. He kept his hands in his pockets and avoided eye contact, and had suceeded in hitching a ride with the third trucker he'd asked. He had no clue where he was headed, but knew it was away from Philedelphia, which was what he wanted. He knew he was lucky that the social worker hadn't questioned him more closely, but it was only a matter of time before someone more attentive caught the lie, and it was best that he wasn't to be found when they did.  
  
He had wanted to risk a call to his sister back in Jersey, but had gotten picked up before he could collect enough change to do so, and it was probably for the best. If his dad found out he was talking to Deanna, it was Dee who would pay for it.  
  
Last time they'd talked, she had said Mom was secretly feeling sorry about making him leave, but he knew that he could never come back unless Dad capitulated, and that was pretty friggin' unlikely. He knew he had ceased to be a son the day his hands had changed. His eyes, with the enlarged pupil and strange color, could be explained away. Mom thought they were pretty. But when the four longest fingers on each of his hands had joined together into one scoop-like appendage, it was over. Theo was denounced as a freak, and as such could never go back home.  
  
Never mind that with hands like that, he could dig tunnels- tunnels!- faster than humanly or mechanically possible, even in hard-packed clay. Never mind that he could see in complete darkness. He was a mutant, and mutants were bad. As evidence, he had in his pocket- he couldn't take it out right now or the trucker'd see his hands- a WANTED poster he'd snitched from a shelter's notice board. On it was a picture of a girl- she'd be pretty if she didn't scowl- wanted for 'suspected mutantcy.' And she looked relatively normal. If she could be arrested for mutantcy, then he sure could, and he'd heard about what the government did to mutants, innocent or not. He'd best keep the lowest profile possible.  
  
It was nearly dark when the trucker stopped at a little town somewhere in Massachusetts, to sleep. Theo had already hopped out of the cab when the trucker called out to him. "There's an old quarry up that road a ways. Might be a good place to camp out for a while."  
  
Theo broke into the first realy grateful smile he'd displayed in a while. "Hey, thanks, sir. I'll go see."  
  
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	5. The Boy

Chapter 5, I think. This chapter not my best work, I admit, so point out any errors or misconceptions you may get.   
  
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There was a boy in her woods. To be fair, they weren't hers, but the fact that this loser dared intrude upon her solitude was enough to make her pretty mad. Well, maybe he'd go away on his own.  
  
This quarry was a great place to stay. Cat had woken up at noon and bathed in one of the deeper pools, scrubbing until the feeling of clean had actually reached her brain, then eaten one of her candy bars while the sun dried herself and her clothes off. She had gotten dressed again and was thinking about fishing, just to see if she would catch anything, when the boy showed up. She'd climbed a tree to hide, and watched him through the foilage like a panther studying potential prey.  
  
To be accurate, he wasn't really a boy, probably pretty close to her own age, but there was something about his appearance that suggested a sort of ageless innocence. He was maybe six foot, six foot two at the most, skinny, brown hair buzzed to his scalp, wearing jeans and a down coat that fit him the same way her clothes fit her, like they'd been made for someone fatter. He seemed to be wearing mittens, which was kinda weird, but she'd seen weirder. His cheekbones were high and his nose was slightly hooked. He had a backpack from which he was taking a candy bar- Snickers, which were Cat's favorite- while he looked around the quarry.   
  
Hurriedly she tried to think if there was anything she'd left out in the open, not because she was worried about being seen, but because she didn't want to beat him up for knowing she was around: she abhorred killing, but in a predetorial way, knew it sometimes was nessicary for survival.   
  
The boy, having found a slight indention in the quarry wall- Cat had noticed it before, but it was too shallow for shelter- set his backpack down and removed his coat, underneath which he was wearing a plain undershirt that had probably been white at one point but had settled into the dull grey of old, and then did something that made Cat's jaw drop off her face. He threw himself, hands first, into the wall and when the dust and particles of dirt had cleared, he wasn't there anymore- and neither was the wall. Instead, there was a round hole about the width of a medium-sized concrete pipe, the kind they used for creekbeds and such, to which Cat couldn't see the end of.  
  
What the hell had just happened? Curiosity overcoming caution, she moved over a couple of trees, jumping the gaps as silently as possible. Yes, there was a hole there, moving horizontally as far as her eyes could see, just low enough from the surface that the dirt above remained undisturbed. A flash of movement made her draw back just in time, for the boy emerged from the hole and dusted his hands off- she was close enough to tell that they weren't mittens, they were his hands, though he seemed to only have two oposeable digits, like a claw.  
  
Realization struck like lightning as she understood that this boy could only be one thing: a mutant, just like her. The thought gave her a slight comfort, a feeling of kinship with what she could now recognize as a runaway, and she felt a little better about sharing the woods with him. But she wouldn't reveal herself to him, at least not now. Maybe later, if he was still here.   
  
He pulled his belongings into the mouth of his self-made cave, not far in, because she could still see them. Figuring she might as well make the most of it, she waited until he was asleep, and then traded one of his Snickers for one of her Fast Breaks.  
  
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	6. The Girl

Sorry for the delay! My muse was thinking Pirates of the Carribean...  
  
They'll meet the X-men soon, but I can't give anything else away. If not the next chapter, then the chapter after that. I might get long winded, or worse, romantic. If people protest, I'll try my best not to, but if you want it, tell me. I like to see what people are thinking about my characters.  
  
Additional disclaimer: I do not own Snickers or Reese's Fast Breaks. They belong to... candy companies. I just happen to eat them at midnight while trying to get my homework done.  
  
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The sun woke Theo: it was shining brightly with the same twinkling arrogance a digital clock's numbers had when you stared at them at six o'clock in the morning. He hadn't realized that the opening of his tunnel faced east, and so the sun woke him as it made it's leisurely way across the sky. He groaned and crawled out of the tunnel, blinking in the daylight his eyes weren't adapted for, then reached back into the tunnel to get his backpack.  
  
He picked his way carefully down to the small pond in the center of the quarry, and, pulling off his shirt, scrubbed his torso vigorously, as much to wake himself up as to get himself clean. Wrinkling his nose at the state of his old shirt- he really should've taken it off before he dug- he reached into his backpack for another one. A couple of candy bars fell out onto the dirt, and he almost had the shirt over his head before he realized.  
  
One of the candy bars was a Reese's Fast Break, and he hadn't bought any of those. All runaways on the move bought candy bars in bulk: packed with calories and sugar, they were a quick energy fix, besides being easy to transport. Theo always bought Snickers because they felt a bit more substantial to him that other brands, and peanuts were one of his favorite foods. Digging through the rest of his stock, he realized that someone had taken a Snickers and replaced it with a Fast Break between the time he'd gone to sleep and the time he'd gotten up. Which meant most likely they'd seen him use his powers to dig the tunnel. Cursing the mutation that made him squint in sunlight, he looked hurriedly around.   
  
It was only because his back was to the light that he noticed the ratty shoe hanging just below the leaves of a tree. Abandoning the clean shirt, he crept his way as quietly as he could towards the tree. Closer, he could see that the foot was connected to a blue-jeaned leg, which was connected to a girl slumbering on a branch wiith her back against the trunk. He took another step forward and a stick snapped under his foot.  
  
Instantly the girl snapped to life, moving from the branch in what he thought was a fall until she landed catlike on a rock nearby. Green eyes blazed with a predatorial anger as she tensed, ready to strike. Theo got ready to dig into the ground at his feet as they stared, each waiting for the other to make a move.  
  
Then something flickered behind her intense eyes, and she eased back onto her haunches, though the set of her biceps told him she was still tensed to move quickly. "Who are you?" she asked, voice low and husky, like a growl.  
  
"I know you from somewhere," he said, ignoring the question.  
  
"I asked you a question," she snapped, level eyebrows snapping together, and abruptly he realized who she was.  
  
"You're Catherine Davis. The one the FBI is looking for." She was as pretty as her picture, though the black and white drawing hadn't prepared him for the unreal green of her eyes.  
  
"Yes," she hissed. "Now tell me who you are before I use my terrifying mutant powers on you." Though the threat was real enough, backed by her tightly clenched jaw, there was a hint of mockery in it.  
  
"I'm Theo. Lately of Philly. You don't scare me."  
  
"You sure?" she asked, flashing white teeth as her eyes glittered dangerously. Her menacing growl turned into a chuckle when he flinched visibly. "Call me Cat." She lept from the rock to offer him a hand, which he took. She made no comment on his mutation, nor did her handshake lack strength because of it, and he sighed inwardly in relief. So many people changed their minds about befriending him once they saw his hands.  
  
She was shorter than he would have guessed, the top of her head barely level with his nose, and she had the same scrawny frame he knew he had, the sort of underfed look runaways perpetually have, despite occasional trips to soup kitchens. Her clothes were just as worn as his, maybe more. Up close, she seemed to be little more than your common homeless kid.   
  
She dropped his hand and brushed past him towards the pond. "You stole one of my Snickers," he accused.  
  
She plopped down on the ground and pulled one shoe off. "Traded," she corrected. "Traded one of your Snickers."  
  
"I don't like Fast Breaks."  
  
She wrestled the other shoe off- the laces were so tangled and dirt encrusted there was no way they were coming untied- and stuck her feet in the shallow water's edge. "Too bad," she drawled. "I like Snickers."  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"Probably the same reason you're here," she said, glancing pointedly at his hands. "Just trying to get away. It was working until you came."  
  
"I won't report you."  
  
"I know." She pulled a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. "Want one?"  
  
"I don't smoke."  
  
She shrugged in the middle of lighting her cigarette. "Your loss. You said you're from Philly?"  
  
"New Jersey, actually. Town near Trenton. You?"  
  
"Alabama," she said, exaggerating her drawl so that he couldn't miss the southern twang. "Been in New York a while, before I came here."  
  
"How'd you get here?"  
  
"Ran, mostly."  
  
"You ran all the way from New York? I hitch-hiked."  
  
She shrugged. "S'not that far. I'm fast."  
  
"I guess so. How long have you been here?"  
  
"What's with the third-degree?" she snapped, but she was grinning. "About a day. I was-" Abrubtly she broke off and snapped to attention. "Shit," she swore, grabbing her shoes.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Coming at us from all directions. Have to be Feds." She glanced at him. "Well, what are you waiting for? Run, or dig, or whatever! They'll arrest you, too." She scampered into the trees.  
  
He snapped out of his frozen stance and grabbed his backpack and shirt, plunging into the ground like a diver into a pool of water.  
  
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I'm trying to illustrate that Cat and Theo's mutation's may not nessicarily (I have so much trouble with that word!) be blessings, so tell me how I'm doing.   
  
And while Cat is attractive, she is also multi-faceted and interesting, with a very not-Mary-Sueish personality. Would a Mary-Sue smoke, I ask you? Smoking is something I abhore, so the answer to that rhetorical question is no.  
  
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	7. The Feds

I work very hard not to make my characters Mary-Sues, and so I appreciate the compliments. No one is perfect, and I like my characters to be real. Cat had to be attractive, for reasons you will see.  
  
I'm not the best at action-oriented sequences, so bear with this chapter.  
  
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While Cat was cursing the fact that the Feds had found her, she really wasn't surprised. It had only been a matter of time. What she felt the worst about was that the boy- Theo- could be caught in the crossfire. So she ran through the woods with a single purpose: draw them away from the quarry.  
  
She sensed a presense behind a tree to her left and pretended to stumble right into the arms of a Federal agent, who had her slammed against a tree trunk so fast that a couple of birds took flight in surprise, arm twisted behind her back. She could have fought back easily, but the guy had raised his radio to his lips to call the rest of his team, which was what she wanted. He kept a really tight hold on her until they got there, which made it pathetically easy for her to snitch his car keys and drop them into her cargo pocket. She was then frog-marched back to the quarry road- she prayed that Theo wasn't on it- where their cars were parked.  
  
They were almost off the dirt and onto the concrete when the ground underneath their very feet began to crumble, as though there was nothing beneath it. The agents stumbled, which gave Cat the opportunity to break out of their hold and sprint towards the woods, in the direction a rising mound of dirt, in essense a giant molehill, was heading.  
  
Theo appeared behind a rock, spat dirt out of his mouth, and grinned. "Thought you could use some help."  
  
"Good show! Could you do that to their cars?" Her mind was starting to form a plan.  
  
He looked thoughtful. "Guess so. The concrete's crumbling anyways."  
  
"Good. Leave that one-" she pointed to the Ford Taurus closest to the main road. "-where it is. I've got keys." She flashed the ring in front of his nose, upon which was a Ford key. The Taurus was the only Ford there.   
  
"What about you?"  
  
"Don't worry about me. I'll be there. Oh, and Theo?" He looked back up, having started to turn around. "Don't let them see you." He gave her a 'no shit' look and disappeared again. She climbed nearest tree to get a better vantage point, needing to time her exodus exactly.  
  
The agents had reocvered and were heading towards her again when one of them noticed one of the cars shaking. They all turned to watch it's tires sink into holes, and Cat was off like a rocket. She slammed straight into the only one who's gun was at the ready, and kept going. She reached the Taurus, which was unlocked, and jammed the key into the ignition. The passenger side door slammed and Theo grinned at her, covered from head to toe in dirt.  
  
"You're messing up the upolstery," she complained as she slammed the car into gear and jammed the accelerator to the floor.  
  
He buckled his seat belt and shrugged, unable to keep the fear out of his voice as she took the winding, bumpy road down from the quarry at a mere 85 mph, his voice filled with fake bravado and adrenaline. "I'll pay to have it cleaned later." Cat took the sharp curve onto the highway without hitting the brakes and the car fishtailed dangerously close to the trees. "If there is a later."  
  
"I'm actually pretty good at this," she yelled at him over the roar of the engines, though she knew that she could do nothing to make him calm down. Some people just don't like going fast. "Thanks for the assist back there."  
  
"You owe me a Snickers," he said, as if that explained it. She chuckled and slowed down the tiniest bit.  
  
Neither one could explain it, but that day they became a team. From that day the weren't alone any more.  
  
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Kind of a mushy ending for the chapter, but my muse wanted it that way.  
  
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	8. The Tanktop

I realized that the X-men won't be meeting up with them for a couple more chapters than I originally said, so I stuck some Logan in there. He's on his way to the manision now, from his first trip to Alkali, just to give you a timeline.  
  
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They crossed the New York-Connecticut border around three, and dumped the car on the highway about fourty-five minutes away from the Big Apple. Cat insisted they walk back along the way they had come, to throw off the FBI, who would assume they would keep going, straight into New York City. Once she explained it, it sounded logical, but Theo knew he never would have come up with it on his own.  
  
They came to a town called Salem Center, and ducked behind a grocery store so Cat could smoke and they both could think.  
  
"You realize those things will give you cancer," he said, gesturing at her cigarette.  
  
She shrugged. "Way my life's going, I'm gonna die early anyways, so I might as well enjoy myself."  
  
"Right, well, don't come crying to me when you're sixty and hacking up lung tissue." She glared at him and they lapsed into silence again.   
  
"We need money," Theo said finally, having just counted the remains of the hundred-dollar bill he'd taken when he'd left. (The total being two dollars and eighty-three cents.)  
  
Cat chuckled quietly, a sound he was already beginning to associate with the comment that followed. "No shit, man. Let's get some."  
  
"You make it sound simple."  
  
She grinned cockily at him. "When you roll with me, it is." She fished around in her pockets and pulled out a tanktop that was considerably smaller and skimpier than the one she was presently wearing.  
  
"What else do you have in there?" he asked, thinking of Mary Poppins and her bottomless carpetbag.  
  
She grinned and ducked behind a dumpster to change, emerging looking less like a runaway and more like a... well, harlot. "Let's go." Without explaining, she sauntered out into the parking lot and headed towards a bar nearby, leaving Theo to gawk after her.  
  
An hour later, Theo had lost track of the amount of money that had disappeared into Cat's pocket. The girl was a grade-A pool shark, and thanks to the tanktop that revealed cleavage the other tanktop had effectively hidden, guys kept playing her, hoping for what every other guy in the bar was hoping for. At twenty bucks a game, Theo figured she had more than eighty bucks tucked away, which was more money than he'd seen in a long time. And the guy she was playing now, a short guy with hair reminescent of Flock of Seagulls and sideburns down to his jawline, had upped the anty to a hundred bucks.  
  
The reason for which became apparent when, six minutes later, Theo realized that the guy was coming dangerously close to kicking her ass. Cat realized it too, and suddenly her body language changed to subtly seductive, so subtle, in fact, that the guy probably hadn't even noticed it. But the distraction was enough for his body, and his next few shots were off fractionally, while Cat continued with her ace game.  
  
Of course, Theo noticed, as did the guys sitting on either side of him at the bar, who didn't take their eyes off her, and when Cat leaned over to line up a shot, every single guy at the bar leaned over with her.  
  
Suddenly the guy leaned over and whispered something directly into her ear. Crack. Cat straightened and watched four balls spin into their prospective holes, while the guy looked on in dismay.  
  
She glanced up and looked directly at Theo, and winked, the first time she'd acknowledged him since they'd entered the bar. He nodded back in appreciation of her shot and subsequent victory, and she jerked her head towards the door.  
  
The guys on either side whistled lewdly as he slipped off his stool and moved out into the street, where the sky had darkened into night, and he waited until Cat sauntered out of the bar, silently counting a thick wad of cash and chewing on the unlit end of a cigar that looked exactly like the one the guy she'd beaten had been smoking. She glanced up and grinned, spitting out the cigar.  
  
"I'm feeling like Whoppers tonight. My treat. C'mon." She looped an arm around his waist, a gesture that startled him on several levels, and pulled him towards the Burger King down the road. After a few steps, he tentatively put his arm around her shoulders, and her head rested on his shoulder.  
  
"Seduction is tiring work," she murmmured, and he laughed his agreement.  
  
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Review after the next chapter, which is very short, so I'm posting them at the same time. 


	9. The Motel Room

All right. This chapter is very short, as I said before, really kind of a continuance of the last one, but skipping the eating.   
  
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"Look at this!" Cat shouted, flinging her arms out dramatically. "A bed! A shower! A TV!"  
  
Theo took in the motel room with eyes that had been seeing nothing but tunnels at night for quite a while, and slowly grinned. "I do believe we have died and gone to heaven."  
  
"And heaven has fluffy white towels!" Cat yelped, twirling around the bathroom holding towels like streamers. "Wahoo!"  
  
He laughed at her ridiculous behavior. "What are you on, girl?"  
  
"Life!" she cried, kicking off her shoes and catapaulting onto the bed, where the springs protested as she bouced energetically. "Life is good, life is great, life is so beautiful. Life is hard, life is fast, life is so incredible!"  
  
"You're gonna get us kicked out," he said, trying to be stern but failing miserably.  
  
"Come on, Theo! Celebrate good times, come on!" she sang, at the top of her lungs and wildly off-key. Then, quick as a thought, she backflipped off the bed and scampered into the bathroom. "I get the shower first!" He heard the door lock, waited until he heard the shower start, then kicked off his shoes, climbed on the bed, and jumped until his head spun.  
  
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Oh, and they bribed the hotel clerk so they could be put in under false names. You'll find that out in the story later, but just so you know.  
  
Review. 


	10. The News

Sorry for the delay, folks. I've been totally swamped. And it's my birthday tomorrow! YAY!  
  
This is just a bit more background on Cat. You'll get some on Theo soon, I promise.   
  
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The last time Cat could remember being this happy was her last birthday she'd spent with her family, her whole family. Back when Carol and her dad were newlyweds, back when she and Alex still acted like brother and sister, back when her birth mother was still alive. They'd all come together on her birthday, just like she'd asked. For once, they forgot all their differences and remembered their one similarity: Cat.  
  
That had been her fourteenth birthday. The rest of that year was absolute hell on toast, but fourteen year-old Cat hadn't known that. She was going to be a freshman in high school in less than a month, finally going to school with the big kids she'd admired for so long, where you got treated like an adult. She had no way of knowing that, in three months, Mom and Alex would get into a hiking accident in which Mom would die of hypothermia and Alex would come back forever altered, never again her older brother. She didn't realize how difficult it would be for her to fit into high school, how her grades would plummet as her body altered in ways not even an anatomy teacher would understand, as her thought patterns altered into something so unpredictable not even modern medicine could fix it. She got in so many fights that she got suspended, and so her father sent her to a military school for a year.  
  
That had been the best thing that anyone could have possibly done for her. Here was an obstacle course that enabled her to let off energy, here were other people with tempers who taught her how to control hers, here were surviors who could teach her to survive.  
  
And so she'd learned, soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Not the knowledge they taught in the classroom, she ignored that and relished the physical punishments she had to do. What Cat learned was how to pick pockets, how to lie convincingly, how to hide so effectively in the shadows that someone could be standing a foot away and not see you. How to take a punch and give it back. All skills that had kept her alive for the past three years. Skills that would continue to serve even after she forgot everything else.   
  
The sounds from the room next door filtered into her consiousness, and she stifled a groan. They were at it again! She'd hoped they'd stay asleep after the second time. Then again, it didn't sound like particularly tiring sex; she was pretty sure the woman was faking it this time, but even that took energy. She thought about banging on the wall above her head, but decided not to. Instead she flicked on the television: the six o'clock news was on. It had been a while since she's watched the news.  
  
The newscaster looked gravely concerned, no mean feat, considering the fact that his makeup would crack if he frowned to hard. Red lettering at the bottom of the screen read: Mutant Assasination Attempt.  
  
"Theo! Theo, wake up!" She flung the remote at his head.  
  
Theo snorted from his position on the floor and cracked an eyelid. "What?"  
  
She didn't have to say anything. The newcaster said it for her. "President McKenna appears to be unharmed, but the mutant responsible for the attack has not been apprehended."  
  
"What?!" Theo shot to his feet and stared, slack-jawed, at the screen. "Oh, God. Oh holy fucking God. This is bad." It was the first time she'd ever heard him cuss.  
  
"Really bad," she agreed. Now the Feds would be on, not only her, but every other mutant in the country, Camo and Mirror-Man and Drac and everybody she knew. Suddenly her mind snapped back into place, and she realized that they had to get moving. "Get dressed. Get your stuff together." She pulled one of the pillowcases off and began stuffing towels into it. No way she was leaving without those fluffy towels.  
  
Why?" Theo asked, but he dumped all the shampoo and soap into his backpack like she gestured for him to do.  
  
"We have to get to New York."  
  
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Let's play NAME THAT MUTANT! Theo needs a nickname, and I'm calling on YOU (the reviewer) to name him.  
  
Also, if someone would tell me how to do italics, it would be very much appreciated. 


	11. The Nothing

I'm soooo sorry for the long delay. Instead of excuses, I will offer you this chapter.  
  
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Theo had never liked gym class. He hadn't like dressing out in front of other boys, hadn't liked basketball or football or kickball- especially kickball. He'd finished his required two semsters of gym and never set foot in the place again.  
  
But now, jogging towards the distance skyscrapers of New York City, he wished he'd worked just a little bit harder at it. His breath was coming short, his knees felt like they were going to wobble off, and he was holding Cat back from whatever was in the city she needed to get at.  
  
He could tell that Cat had set the easy pace purely for his benefit- there was a bounce in her stride and a regularity to her breathing that said she'd have to go much faster before she even thought about getting tired, much less did it. She had taken his pillowcase, with it's sheets and soap, and had it slung over her shoulder with hers like some perverse Santa Claus.  
  
"Why don't...you just...go ahead..." he gasped out. "I'll... catch up."  
  
She halted midstride, deftly pivoting on an ankle to face him. "You think I'd just leave you behind?" she demanded, propping her fists on her hips, eyeing him like he'd suddenly gotten stupid and she was wondering how she'd missed it.  
  
"Sure," and he tried to sound matter-of-fact about it, hoping his breathlessness disguised his dejected tone, propping him hands on his knees so she couldn't see his face. "Nothing keeping you." Almost a full minute passed before he caught his breath and looked up, fully expecting her to be gone.  
  
But she was still standing there, regarding him with a raised eyebrow and the strangest expression in her eyes. Then her lips quirked upwards and he promptly lost his breath again as she touched her lips to his.   
  
It was the barest whisper of contact, not what he'd expect from the tough, almost slutty image she projected, and yet it seared through him as if she'd lit his every nerve ending on fire. He started to move forward, wanting more, but she pulled back and lifted her pillowcases again.  
  
She turned back to grin at him after a few steps. "That's a lot of nothing, huh?"  
  
Theo couldn't find his voice to agree. But he found that he didn't mind the jogging so much anymore.  
  
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Review. Next chapter soon. 


	12. The City

Okay. I thought about what you said, Terminatrix T-X, and you're right, Theo doesn't really have much, yet. But for now, Cat is the picture, and Theo is the frame. Theo will join the picture later.  
  
Here we go! Now we start entering the X-men 'verse.  
  
Also, I have selected a winner for the naming Theo contest, but I'm not going to introduce it yet. He has to 'come up with it' on his own.  
  
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It was nearly ten o'clock by the time Cat and Theo crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into New York City, but Cat knew exactly where Henry was: where he always was, his lab on Chambers Street. They caught a taxi: as much as Cat hated to spend the money, she could tell Theo didn't have much run left in him. She was surprised he'd made it as far as he did. She sometimes forgot that other people weren't capable of the things she was, so second nature her abilities had become. The taxi was faster, though arguably so.  
  
"And you make fun of my driving," she muttered at Theo as their driver leaned heavily on his horn while simultaneously changing lanes, badly. Theo simply gulped, his eyes long since tightly shut.  
  
"What address'd you say?" the driver asked, not having heard her comment.  
  
"Just drop us at Indepence Plaza," she told him, then poked Theo in the ribs. "C'mon. Open your eyes. Have you ever been to New York before?"  
  
"Once," he admitted, looking at her through slits in his eyelids. "When I was eight. I liked Little Italy, hated Chinatown. It smelled."  
  
"It does tend to do that in the summer," she agreed with the tolerance of experience. "You get used to it."  
  
"I don't think I'd want to," Theo said, with the beginnings of a smile that abruptly disappeared as the driver slammed the brakes and they were both thrown against their seatbelts, which Theo had, quite wisely, insisted they wear.  
  
"In-de-pend-ance Plaza," the driver said, as though simply getting there was some major accomplishment.  
  
"Thank you," she said, as though it was, and she quickly paid him and tugged Theo towards Henry's building.  
  
The sight of the policemen out front made her stop. "Shit," she quickly swore, and jogged through the alleyway to the back. Squinting critically at the second story window she judged to be Henry's, she lobbed a piece of broken cement at it, and after a minute, Henry's blue furred head appeared.  
  
"Cat?" he called in an exaggerated whisper.  
  
"Yeah, it's me."  
  
His eyes found her and he smiled tightly. "Come on up. Hurry."  
  
She grabbed Theo by the front of his shirt and began climbing up to his window.  
  
"You're very strong," Theo remarked casually, looking down at the ground with horrified interest as it disappeared.  
  
"Lucky for you," she retorted, handing him up to Dr. Henry McCoy's blue furred hands before climbing in herself.  
  
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Review! The more I get the faster I update!   
  
I think that Beast (Henry McCoy) was woefully left out of the movie 'verse, and I'm fixing that. He's not just there 'cause I like him, though, he's important. You'll see. 


	13. The Mission

Wow. That was a looong delay and I'm sorry; my muse deserted me for warmer pastures. The release of X2 on dvd got the creative juices flowing again, so here goes.  
  
A couple of notes about the story-   
  
a) The X-men show up (I swear to every god I know) show up in the chapter after next.  
  
b) The word 'Cerebra' is not a typo. It's like, Cerebro version 2.0.   
  
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He wasn't really that tall- maybe a couple of inches shorter than Theo, actually- but he was barrel-chested and massive with muscle. Kindly blue eyes twinkled with benevolence and intelligence behind half-moon spectacles, and the hands that set him on his feet and straightened his coat were gentle.  
  
But all Theo really noticed was that the man was covered from head to toe in thick blue fur.  
  
Cat scrambled into the window and the giant grabbed her in the biggest approximation of a bear hug Theo had ever seen, Cat grimacing comically over his shoulder as joints in her spine popped. "Lemme breathe, Henry," she said finally, squirming.  
  
"Apologies, Cat," the giant said, in a surprisingly cultured voice. "You have no idea how relieved I am that you showed up. The Morlocks are on the run."  
  
Cat winced, one hand coming to her forehead. "Shit! Is it that bad?"  
  
The giant nodded. "There have been three lynch mobs already." He moved to the desk and lifted the bottom out of a drawer.  
  
"Anyone we know?" Cat asked, accepting two vials of blue liquid and wrapping them in a motel washcloth before sticking them in her pockets.  
  
"Minder," the giant said heavily, handing her a sheaf of papers.   
  
Cat swore loudly. "Sasha?" She stuffed the papers into one of her pillowcases.  
  
"I sent her with the Morlocks. The cops will be moving in on this place soon."  
  
"You want me to get the Cerebra program out of here?" Cat asked, yanking the zipper on her pocket shut and nodding towards a door. "By the way," she said suddenly. "This is Theodore Jenkins. Theo, this is Dr. Henry McCoy. We call him the Beast."  
  
The giant's mouth- muzzle?- moved into a sheepish smile at the lapse in courtesy. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Theo. If it pleases Cat to call me Beast, then you may as well. And your head is probably spinning in confusion," he continued, noting the look on Theo's face.  
  
Theo smiled. "Yes, sir, it is."  
  
"I'll get the program," Cat said quickly, ducking through the door.  
  
Beast grinned. "Cat hates hearing people talk about her. She's says she's afraid she'll hear something bad. Where'd you two meet?"  
  
Theo shrugged. "A rock quarry in Massachusetts."  
  
"Sounds like a Cat-ish sort of place. I've known her for a couple of years now," Beast said, changing the subject abruptly. "I helped her out with a problem, then she helped me contact some of the people I can't be seen contacting- at least until this FBI nonsense. Cat's a good enough kid, when she wants to be. You sticking with her?" Suddenly Theo recognized this for what it was- the interrogation of a potential boyfriend by a protective male guardian.  
  
Theo thought about his response carefully. "As long as she lets me, sir. Something tells me she calls the shots in her life, you know?"  
  
"Definately an Alpha female complex," Beast chuckled agreeably.   
  
"If you don't mind my asking, sir, what was the blue stuff you gave her?"  
  
"That's an anti-serum for a virus I invented for Cat."  
  
"A virus you invented...?"  
  
"It's not as bad as it sounds. Cat had a problem with feline hormones overwhelming her sense of self. I invented the virus to erradicate all outside influences that don't match with Cat's human DNA. She called it 'the Handyman.' She needs the anti-serum in case the virus does something it's not supposed to."  
  
"Do you do that for all mutants, sir?" Theo surveyed the man with a new respect, for he knew Cat couldn't have paid for something like that to save her life, no matter how much pool she played.  
  
Beast shrugged. "Only cases that can't be treated any other way. Most powers can be controlled, with a little discipline. With the Handyman virus, Cat has the ability to control her powers." Another modest shrug as the blue-furred man tried to downplay his part in Cat's life.  
  
"Are you finished?" Cat asked as she reentered the office, carrying a disk's jewel case in her hand. "Not to interrupt Happy Hour, but there's a SWAT team about a block away and closing."  
  
Beast choked and grabbed up a piece of paper. "I want you to take the program here- Prof. Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Give it to no one but Xavier. The place is near a town called Salem Center, not far from here.   
  
"I know. We passed through the town on our way. We'll get it there. What about you?" Cat pocketed the hastily penned note along with the jewel case.  
  
"I'm going to buy you some time," Beast said, with the grim look of a man about to become a martyr. When both Cat and Theo would have protested, he made slashing movements with his hands. "No. The program is the most important thing I've ever made, and it will save hundreds, maybe even thousands, of mutants. It must get to Xavier, and I'm too conspicuous to get it there."  
  
Cat's spine stiffened, her face a mask of denial and stubbornness, then she sighed in resignation. "I just hope this Xavier guy appreciates what you've done here, Henry," she said, giving Theo a little shove towards the window. "G'bye."  
  
"Good luck, Cat," Beast said, giving them both thumps on the back that knocked the wind clear out of Theo's ribcage.  
  
At Cat's urging, Theo clambered out of the window, and she held onto his wrist and lowered him to within four feet of the ground, hanging onto the window frame with the tops of her feet alone, and then dropped effortlessly beside him. "I still think you'd be a lot better off without me to watch out for," he said.  
  
She gave him a look. "We've had this conversation already, man." She started out of the alley, swore, and quickly turned, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and kissing him hard.  
  
Theo almost pushed her away, confused, when he heard the quick, light sound of multiple feet tapping into the alley. Something hard poked him in the back and, careful to keep his hands hidden by Cat's waist, he turned to face the masked figures of two SWAT people, who were gesturing for what they thought was just two teenagers using the cover of the alley to make out to make a quick and quiet exit.  
  
Not needing to keep the fear out of his face, he and Cat beat a speedy retreat out of the alley, breaking into a run like any startled teens would have. "You're brilliant, you know that?" he gasped, not releasing his hold on Cat's hand even though they were out of sight of the office building. "I would never think of the things you come up with."  
  
She grinned tightly, mind only half on the conversation. "What time is it, do you know?"  
  
Theo shrugged. "Eleven, maybe twelve."  
  
"We don't need to go quite as fast as we did coming in," she said, and Theo couldn't restrain his sigh of relief. "We should get there about five, maybe six in the morning, you think?"  
  
"Sounds good," Theo said, since she seemed to want a response.  
  
Suddenly she grinned mischeviously. "You wanna go skinny-dipping in Central Park?"  
  
He laughed. "Maybe next time."  
  
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Review. Next chapter tomorrow. 


	14. The Mansion

Next chapter, as promised, though if I don't get more reviews, my muse might go back to Jamaica... she likes to know when she's being appreciated! *hint hint*  
  
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"This is it," Cat said, eyeing the dark, stone mansion with more than a little trepidation, then glancing downwards as shards of glass crunched under her feet. She looked for the source and realized that the giant picture window above the mansion's front door was little more than a frame.   
  
"What happened here?" Theo said, unconsciously echoing her thoughts.  
  
"Let's find out," she suggested, and sliding her fingers into Theo's hand, proceeded to walk up the front walk towards the broken doors. Theo's grip tightened as they got closer, and Cat agreed; in the pre-dawn light, the Victorian mansion was extremely forbiding.  
  
Spreading her heightened senses out to their extreme limit, she gently pushed one of the doors aside, wincing at the loud creaking sound it made as it's hinges protested the slight movement as Cat made a wide enough crack for them to slip through.  
  
It was even darker inside the mansion, dark enough that Cat had to squint to look around for a lightswitch, and she sighed in frustration just as Theo's free hand found it and the quiet click was accompanied by... nothing. The lights didn't respond. "No power," Theo said matter-of-factly. "Come on."   
  
He pulled her forward, apparently able to see where he was going, then stopped cold. By then, Cat's eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and she could see it, too: a large pile of black-clad bodies.   
  
"SWAT?" she muttered, for the soldiers did bear a marked resemblance to the ones they'd seen not so long ago. She let go of Theo's hand and moved forward cautiously, grabbing one body by the shoulder and pulling it onto it's back, searching for dogtags. "Not SWAT," she said, finding none. "Something else."  
  
"What do we do?" Theo asked, sounding slightly nauseated.   
  
Cat thought for a moment, surveying the damaged foyer. "Well, the only bodies here are the attackers- at least, that's what I guess they are. Maybe this means that the Xavier guy got away."  
  
"Will he come back, do you think?" Theo asked.  
  
"Probably," Cat shrugged, and stood, grabbing the body by the shoulder strap on it's uniform. "Let's clean this place up a bit for him, huh?"  
  
"Yeah," Theo said, dropping his backpack. "You want me to dig a hole?"  
  
"No. Let's just get them out of the mansion, let Xavier decide what to do with them. Put the weapons in a separate pile, though." She found a butterfly knife in one of the guy's jacket pockets. "I'm keeping this."  
  
"Yeah, this is mine," Theo said, waving a military-issue compass he'd found in another guy's pocket.  
  
Clean-up went by in no time- with her powers, Cat could easily lift two or three bodies at the same time, and Theo worked with stoic determination. They eventually had close to twenty bodies, all the black-clad soldiers, lined up neatly on the front lawn, and a respectable pile of weapons in the foyer.  
  
"Well, that was fun," Theo said, winded as he wiped blood off his arms with a paper towel he'd found in the kitchen. "Are we finished?"  
  
She nodded, eyes on the books that lined the living room wall. "Think so."  
  
There was a rustle of plastic as Theo dropped his paper towel in a trash can, and then less than a second's pause before he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She leaned gratefully against him, glad of the reminder that she wasn't alone. "You're tired," she commented, sensing it in the slight tremble in his frame.  
  
Feeling him shrug against her back was a sensation unto itself, for Theo was a lot stronger in the flesh than he looked from afar. "It's been a long day. Night," he corrected himself, for the sun was now shining brightly through the windows.  
  
"Yeah." Now that she thought about it, she was nearly as exhausted as he was, more from the emotional roller-coaster the night had been than from the physical exertions, and she had to slap Theo's hand, which was idly stroking her stomach, simply because she was too tired to follow up on what her instincts wanted her to do. "Do you think we can get on the couch without letting go?" she asked wistfully, eyeing the plush leather with longing.  
  
He laughed, pulled her towards it until the side of her leg brushed against it, and then deftly fell sideways so that they did, indeed, end up horizontal on the couch. She squirmed around until she could rest her head on his chest, and that was all she could manage to do before she fell asleep.  
  
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Review! Next chapter... (drumroll, please) ...X-MEN!!!! 


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